Cursive and More - Getting Ready to Write

There are many of stages that we go through before we are ready to learn to write.

Even as infants we have changes that happen as we grow. When we are born, our hands mostly form little fists. During the first few months of our lives the fingers learn to open up, our hands reach for things and then the fingers can actually grab onto things that are close by.

As a baby gets older the arms extend further and reach for things further away. Usually the baby will then also bring the object close and put it in its mouth. All these movements are repeated many times and help a baby to develop eye and hand co-ordination.

The fingers then learn to move more to pinch and pick-up smaller items. This is called a fine motor skill. At the same time, the arms are getting stronger and able to push, pull and lift larger and heavier items. This is called a gross motor skill. Once the fine and gross motor muscles have had enough development, it is easy for a child to hold a writing instrument such as a pencil, crayon or marker.

There are many activities that young children can do to improve both the fine and gross motor skills in the very early years.

Fine and Gross Motor Skill Activities for improving Handwriting

Scribbles

Once the fine and gross motor muscles have had enough development, it is easy for a child to hold a writing instrument such as a pencil, crayon or marker.

Young children who are given something to write with and something to write on will also go through many steps that prepare them for learning to write.

The first stage is scribbling. This means making various random marks on the page. At one point children make the connection that “they” created this mark, and then they continue to make more marks. Scribbling then becomes an activity.

There are many scribbles that children make, and these are the same throughout the world. A woman in California, Rhoda Kellogg, many years ago discovered after looking at many thousands of scribbles children made that they can be classified into different groups.

Scribble and complex shapes - Source : What Children Scribble and Why- Rodha Kellog

Legibility is the #1 Goal

The purpose of learning to write in cursive is first and foremost to be able to produce a handwriting that is legible. If you or others are unable to read what has been handwritten, you have not accomplished what you set out to do.

It takes time and effort

Remember it takes children a long time to learn to speak. First, they make sounds, then form words, put a few words together, and finally speak in sentences. Similarly with learning to walk, children learn to stand, then put one foot in front of the other one, balance their body while taking a step, falling down and getting up again many, many times, becoming increasingly steady on their feet, take a few steps, more steps and finally walking. They learn to run after they learn to walk.

Likewise with learning cursive handwriting, it takes time. Learning to make the correct movements, in the right direction, steering the hand and arm across the page, making the writing heavy enough to see, yet not so heavy it rips through the page - all these things require practice and patience to learn. It is important to be patient and in time you will learn this valuable skill.

What age is Cursive handwriting best taught?

For over 100 years children around the world have successfully been taught to write in cursive beginning in Grade One, or around six years old. Most children are able to write in cursive automatically, that is, not thinking about how to form each letter or write each word, by the time they are ten years old. Every child develops at his/her own pace. It is generally accepted that boys develop the skill at a slightly later time than girls do.

By the age when children begin school they are at an age where they are ready to learn to write by hand. Some schools, like Montessori schools, teach children to write in cursive first. Learning to Write in cursive, usually beginning in grade one, was normal 100 years ago. Printing was very easy to teach when a child was a little older. Printing was only used for the title of a story or article or labeling hand drawn maps or drawings. All other handwriting was done in cursive.

Location and writing surface

It is important to have a place to learn and practice where there is enough room to sit comfortably, have the paper resting on a firm surface, with enough room for the arms to rest on the table as. We have seen videos where teachers have children sit cross-legged on the floor and hold a small whiteboard in their lap to write on. That is clearly an incorrect location and physical configuration to learn to write.

Pencils and Erasers

When learning to write there is no need to purchase many different pencils. Ordinary HB or No. 2 pencils are the best to use to begin to learn to write. There are differing opinions on the many variations available: short golf pencils, fat primary pencils, triangular shaft pencils and others. The main thing is that you have a pencil and paper and begin the process of learning to write. Many poorer countries have students with excellent writing abilities and never had the luxury of using different types of pencils.

Erasing mistakes must also be taught so that the children don't rip through the paper, rather work gently to remove the error, and then correct it.

There is also another theory that it is best, when first learning to write not to erase mistakes because your brain learns from recognizing mistakes.

A simple horizontal line through the word is enough to cross-out the error, followed with the corrected word.

Paper Position

Many children through the years have become frustrated trying to learn to write because they positioned the page upright in front of them. It is easier for children to write when the page is slightly angled in front of them. This simple change in direction of the writing page can make it much easier for children to learn to write.

For the right-handed child the page should be slanted towards the left so the bottom left corner of the page points towards the middle of the body.

For the left-handed child the page should be slanted to the right with the bottom right corner of the page pointing towards the middle of the body.

The non-writing hand should be holding the edge of the page to keep it from moving while writing.

Proper Pencil Grip

The importance of a Proper Grip

Parents see these beginning activities as unimportant to handwriting development and do not bother to teach or monitor whether a child is holding the writing tool properly. This is followed by some teachers who today are also unconcerned about how a child holds a pencil when learning to write, and often do not change or correct an improper grip

It is important for parents to monitor when children hold a writing instrument at a younger age. These beginning activities are important to handwriting development.

The reason why it is good to establish a proper grip is because as children become better at handwriting and are required to write for longer periods of time, the hand doing the writing will not suffer the cramps and fatigue that an inefficient grip creates.

A proper grip has the pencil held between the first finger and the thumb with the second finger underneath supporting the first finger. The grip should not be too tight or too loose. When a child is young it is quite easy to have the child learn and maintain a proper grip. It does however require constant monitoring and reminding until the child automatically consistently uses a correct grip.

When a child is older and has for many years used an inefficient grip, it can be extremely difficult to change. There are some people who have used various unique grips and still produce legible speedy handwriting. In such cases it would be better to allow that grip to continue rather than try to change it.

There are various aids available to help children achieve a proper grip. Some of these include triangular shaped pencils, and plastic or rubberized grip forms that slide over pencils. Once children are well on their way to writing with a proper grip these aids can be discontinued. The most important strategy to encourage a proper handwriting grip is to consistently watch whether the children are using a correct grip and quietly and gently correct the grip, then praise them when they are using the correct grip.

Some children may have more difficulty with the physical writing process and require more assistance from an occupational therapist or special training in handwriting remediation.

The Power Grasp

Holding a larger sized object is called a grasp. This is considered a gross motor function. When we are going to pick up a larger sized object such as a chocolate bar, we don’t realize that before we are in contact with the object the hand is already preparing for the grasp by beginning to form the fingers to hold it. This preparatory movement took hundreds of hours of practice during the very early years to achieve. First movement by babies do not involve the individual fingers, rather grasping with the whole hand. A common beginning movement by babies is to repeatedly bang the object onto a hard surface. From this largely sporadic and uncontrolled movement, it gradually becomes more controlled and deliberate over time and with practice.

The vision component needs to estimate how much strength needs to be generated to pick up an object. The hands also give feedback to the brain so it can adjust accordingly. For example, to pick up a large box, the ands and arms may summon a great deal of strength to lift the box. An adjustment would have to be made if the box turned out to be empty and not weigh very much.

Increased muscle strength and movement control in young children allow them to further develop the ability to catch and throw using their power grasp, as well as more arm movement, and finally adjust their whole bodies to successfully complete this newly acquired skill.

The Precision Grip

Around one year old a baby will begin to move the fingers independently. Any grip using both the thumb and index finger in opposition is called a precision grip and fine motor function.

The tips of the index finger and thumb are the most sensitive. Each fingertip has over 3,000 nerve endings directly connected to the brain. This sensitivity allows the hand to move very quickly in response to something that might be of danger to the fingers such as a sharp object or a flame for example.

Eye hand coordination has been developed to a higher degree when babies begin to use the precision grip.

Complexity of a Pencil Grip

Holding a writing instrument involves BOTH fine and gross motor muscles. Often the power grasp is first used by a young child to hold a writing instrument. Adjusting movements that involve both gross and fine motor activity are used to move the writing instrument into the proper position for handwriting.

A proper grip requires the precision grip of the index finger and thumb, as well as the stabilizing effect of the ring finger and baby finger curled under the hand into the palm. The combination of index finger and thumb, the action of the components of the wrist, strength of the forearm and upper arm as well as the shoulder are all involved in handwriting. This complexity of movement, combined with vision, and to a lesser extent even hearing, indeed makes handwriting one of the greatest achievements of mankind.

Ongoing research is now showing it also plays a significant role in brain development in young children.

The Opposite (Free) Hand

Even though the opposite hand does not write, it has a very important function in the writing process. It has the job of holding the page that is being written on firmly and preventing it from sliding while you are writing. What goes unnoticed to most is that this hand, while holding the page secure, is constantly adjusting and moving the page during the writing process. As writing is being done further and further down the page, this hand needs to adjust the page to accommodate this change.

It is best to monitor and encourage the consistent use of the opposite hand to hold the writing page when beginning to learn to write.

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